The present invention relates to reduced-fat/low-fat chocolate products and preparation of the same.
Chocolate and chocolate-type products have high fat and energy contents and are differentiated from most other foods by their texture. This is due to the melting properties of the cocoa butter or cocoa butter substitutes, which enable the chocolate and chocolate-type products to be solid at normal room temperatures and yet to melt easily in the mouth. The flow properties of liquid chocolate are important for the following reasons:
a) Since chocolate is processed in a liquid state and most products are produced by enrobing or moulding, the viscosity of the liquid chocolate should be controlled so that it is not be too high.
b) A high viscosity will give a poor texture or mouthfeel and will result in the chocolate being harder to melt causing the product to remain longer in the mouth and becoming more difficult to swallow. In extreme cases the chocolate can have a fudge-like texture.
The fat content of chocolate may vary from about 25% to about 40% by weight depending on whether it is plain, milk or white chocolate but is usually from about 30% to 34% by weight based on the total weight of the chocolate. However, the liquid phase of liquid chocolate is the fat and if the fat content is reduced, the viscosity is increased making it more difficult to use for enrobing or moulding and imparting an undesirable texture or mouthfeel. As stated in Chocolate, Cocoa and Confectionery: Science and Technology, Third Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (1989) at page 205 "Good-quality, finely ground chocolates with total fat contents down to 28 percent can now be produced and satisfactorily molded. Lower-quality chocolates with coarser particle size can be produced down to 25%, Particularly with milk chocolates, quality suffers with fat contents below 30%, the texture becoming pasty with lack of snap".
One method of reducing the fat content while maintaining the texture is to use fat replacers, such as SALADTRIM fat replacer, which are not digested as fats and have a very low calorific value. The replacers are not, however, universally accepted in chocolate products and some are restricted in their level of consumption owing to the risk of unpleasant side-effects.
Finished chocolate usually contains a substantial quantity of ultrafine particles such as sugar, cocoa solids and milk solids below 2 microns in size giving a large surface area and large amounts of fat, e.g. cocoa butter, are required to coat such particles so that the chocolate can flow properly in manufacturing operations, and another method of reducing the fat content while maintaining the texture is to control the particle size of the solid particles in order to reduce the amount of or to substantially eliminate the ultrafine particles and thereby reduce the surface area to be coated with the fat. However, such methods are rather cumbersome and not very efficient.